The Friday Mash (Micro Republic Edition)
On this day in 301 A.D., a stonecutter with the wonderful name of Marinus of Rab founded what is now The Most Serene Republic of San Marino. This “micro republic” has a flag, a constitution, a parliament, and even a coat of arms. Unfortunately, it’s never had an event listed on the Beer Festival Calendar.
And now…The Mash!
We start with the discovery of two-centuries-old bottles of beer at a shipwreck in the Baltic Sea. So far, the divers who found the beer haven’t reviewed it on RateBeer.com.
It’s chile harvest time in Hatch, New Mexico, and Jesse Hughey of the Dallas Observer hunts up beers that pair with chile dishes.
Overshadowed by its beery neighbor to the south, Washington State is on the verge of a microbrewery explosion, with as many as 20 new establishments about to open their doors.
Stan Hireronymus reviews Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition, by Dan Okrent. Factoid: James Madison, who stood only 5′4″, drank a pint a day. Whiskey, not beer.
Alan McLeod (A Good Beer Blog) argues that macrobrewers still don’t get it: they rely on T-shirts and $5 coupons, not better beer, to attract customers.
Seth Levy of BeerConnoisseur.com caught up with Jennifer Tally, the brewmaster at Squatter’s Pubs & Beer. He also found out how good-tasting a beer can be despite an ABV of less than 4 percent.
Finally, scientists have found that the ancient Nubians drank beer containing the antibiotic tetracycline. To your health, indeed!
The Friday Mash (Model T Edition)
On this day in 1863, Henry Ford I was born. Among other things, he pioneered the assembly line for building cars. Mr. Ford was a sworn enemy of alcohol, so don’t let him know that Greenfield Village and the Henry Ford Museum, which he built during the 1920s, now serve locally-brewed craft beer.
And now…The Mash!
This is the last day to vote in TheFullPint.com’s Best IPA Poll. Currently in the lead: Ballast Point Sculpin IPA.
Iowa has upped its ABV limit on beer to 12 percent. Ryan Van Velzer of Draft magazine tells us what’s on tap and what’s in the tank in the Hawkeye State.
Don Russell, a/k/a “Joe Sixpack,” takes note of the latest fresh-beer technology–namely, home draft kegs.
Trying to convert a wine lover to beer? Evan Benn offers style-by-style recommendations.
Sean Norquist, who blogs at The Hop Press, is beer hunting in Hawaii. You can find his first three posts from the Aloha State here, here, and here.
Madonna’s ex-husband Guy Ritchie plans to open his own brewery.
Finally, Maureen Ogle, the author of Ambitious Brew interviewed Beer Robot. Her “boxers or briefs” question didn’t compute.
Beer Hunting in the Badger State
It goes without saying that Wisconsinites love their beer. In fact, the Badger State has more breweries than any state east of the Rockies. Visiting them all would be quite an accomplishment, and writing a guidebook to them would be even more impressive. And that’s what Madison-based writer Kevin Revolinski has done.
In 2006, Revolinski wrote The Wisconsin Beer Guide: A Travel Companion, a guidebook to the state’s breweries. Four years later, things had changed so much in his state’s craft-brewing industry that he hit the road again and wrote a second edition. The book, which is now in print, lists 74 breweries and brewpubs, from the gigantic MillerCoors plant in Milwaukee to the little Pioneer Haus inside the student center at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville.
Revolinski and his book came to our attention after we noticed a story he wrote in Sunday’s Chicago Tribune. If you live in Chicagoland or, for that matter, anywhere in the Great Lakes area, the story might make you plan a Wisconsin beer tour–and pick up a copy of the book.
The Friday Mash (The Sun Also Rises Edition)
On this day in 1899, Ernest Hemingway was born in Oak Park, Illinois. He won the Pulitzer Prize (1953) and the Nobel Prize (1954) for literature. Hemingway is credited with these friendly words of advice: “Always do sober what you said you’d do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut.”
And now…The Mash!
Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal had an interesting story about beer tasters. Turns out that women might be better at the job because they’re more sensitive about the levels of flavor.
Alan McLeod, of A Good Beer Blog, reviews 500 Beers by Zak Avery.
Pete Brown is still scratching his head over A-BInBev’s latest product, Stella Artois Black–which, of course, is golden-colored.
Shannon Armour, writing in the Phoenix New Times, lists Ten Beers That Go Great for Breakfast. Heading the list: What else? Founders Breakfast Stout.
Readers of Zymurgy magazine once again voted Pliny the Elder the Best Commercial Beer in America.
The latest issue of Raconteur, a special section of the British newspaper The Times, was devoted to beer. Some of the U.K.’s best beer writers contributed to it.
Finally, a story just in time for Independence Day. A New York Times tasting panel rates American pale ales. Best in show: Flying Dog’s Doggie Style Pale Ale.
Beer Rant of the Year (And It’s Only May)
Ludwig, Maryanne, and Paul appreciate a good rant. Actually, they savor them. One of the best they’ve run into in quite some time comes courtesy of Jay Brooks, the keeper of the Brookston Beer Bulletin. Brooks let fly at the authors of the latest diet book, Eat This, Not That, after they wandered out beyond their depth and offered some addle-headed beer recommendations.
Last year, the authors named Sierra Nevada Stout their worst beer. This year, they handed out that distinction to another Sierra Nevada product, Bigfoot Ale. Why? Two reasons: calories and carbs. Period. And that got Brooks off and running. After ticking off a list of well-regarded craft beers with an even higher caloric content, he lays waste to the authors’ main argument:
What’s the one thing all of those beers have in common, including Bigfoot? You don’t drink them the same way you do the [mass-market] beers that they compare them to….You can’t really compare them because they’re not made for the same purpose or use. It’s apples and oranges while the Eat This, Not That authors can only see beer as one interchangeable commodity. To them, all beer is the same, only the calories change.
He’s not finished. Not by a long shot:
That so many people are duped into believing the sacrifice to drink light beer is worth it for their health continues to amaze me and may be one of the greatest lies ever perpetrated my marketing.
Wait. There’s more:
Calorie or carbohydrate-counting may be fine for some people (though I can’t for the life of me come up with a reason why) but applying it to beer is utterly ridiculous and without merit. If following their advice is what passes for healthy living, I’m happy to die sooner having lived a fuller, more enjoyable life. Life’s just too short to drink low-calorie beer.
Amen, brother.
This Post Has Not Been Rated
Fair warning: these stories might appeal to the beer-prurient interest:
One of the events at the Craft Brewers Conference earlier this month was the world’s largest-ever beer dinner, with 2,000 guest in attendance. Jay Brooks of the Brookston Beer Bulletin has both video and a slide show from the event, which used 600 gallons of beer to pair with the courses and another 200 gallons of beer to cook with.
Beers of Europe, a mail-order beer store based in London, has to be seen to be believed. Which is why the store made a video and asked beer writer Pete Brown to put it on his blog. How large is this store’s range of beer? Its video, which is a tour up and down the aisles, runs eight minutes, 49 seconds.
Don Russell, a/k/a “Joe Sixpack,” reviews 1001 Beers You Must Taste Before Your Die by Adrian Tierney-Jones. He directs your attention to the back of the book, where “the reader–whether twisted or just curious–is exposed to all sorts of strange ingredients, deviant brewing styles and freakish fermentations.”
Finally, what might be the world’s oldest bottle of gueuze resides in Ebenezer’s Pub Cellar in Lovell, Maine.
The Friday Mash (Beer Hunter Edition)
On March 27, 1942, Michael Jackson was born. So tomorrow, Maryanne, Paul, and Ludwig plan to break out a Fuller’s Vintage Ale that we’ve saved for that special occasion and offer a toast to The Beer Hunter.
And now…The Mash!
In London, Pete Brown was treated to a pleasant surprise: an authentic German beer hall called the Bavarian Beer House. Pete’s reaction to Obatzda, a Bavarian comfort food, is hilarious.
Another interesting collaboration ale is in the fermenter. It’s Biere De L’Amitie (”Friendship Brew”) a blond Belgian strong ale brewed by Green Flash Brewing Company of San Diego and Brasserie St. Feuillien of Belgium. Its American release will take place in June at O’Brien’s in San Diego. (Hat tip: Todd Alstrom of BeerAdvocate.com)
The British government is sending mixed messages. On one hand, the Minister for Pubs has announced a 12 point reform plan to stem the tide of closures. But on the other hand, the government’s new budget calls for another hike in the beer tax.
No fooling. Stone Brewing Company kicks off distribution to the Chicago area April 1, and will celebrate with a series of events at Chicago-area establishments.
Get on the bus! Stu Stuart of “Belgian Beer Me” is offering bus tours devoted to Belgian beer. He’s got several to choose from. (Hat tip: the crew at Beer School.)
Finally, a couple of items from the bookshelf:
Rick Lyke reviews 1001 Beers You Must Taste Before You Die by Adrian Tierney-Jones. Rick’s got a head start on the rest of us, having tasted more than 400 of the beers mentioned in the book.
And Stan Hieronymus has written another book, Brewing With Wheat. Paul loved Brew Like a Monk, and he’s looking forward to savoring Stan’s latest effort (hat tip: Jack “Liquid Diet” Curtin).
A New Book About British Beer Styles
His real name is Martyn Cornell, but most people know him by his nom de blog, The Zythophile. His blog is known for fact-filled, and often pungent, commentary on beer and brewing. Martyn’s writing is so entertaining that you knew it was only a matter of time before a publisher offered him a book deal. And sure enough, The History Press came calling.
The book’s title is Amber, Gold and Black, The History of Britain’s Great Beers, which the author describes as “the first book devoted solely to the development of beer styles in Britain, from bitter to porter, covering every aspect of their history, what they were when they started , how they developed and what they are today.”
Some of the material in Amber, Gold and Black will be familiar to Zythophile fans (are they known as “Zythophilephiles?”). It takes on questions like these: “How did India Pale Ale really come about?”, “Who really developed porter?”, and “What exactly is mild?” Martyn says the answers to all three aren’t what most people think.
Lew Bryson: On the Road in Pennsylvania
It’s hard to believe, but Lew Bryson is working on a fourth edition of his book, Pennsylvania Breweries. The latest lap of his travels began in Pittsburgh, where he finally got in a visit to the Penn Brewery, went more or less up I-79 to Erie, and homeward from there with a stop at Straub Brewery’s famous Eternal Tap (he’s got a photo of it!.
Hey, glad you got back safely, Lew.
The Friday Mash
Our weekly feature: all the news that’s fit to blog!
The Beer Blog interviewed Mike Pellegrino, the author of Jersey Brew, The Story of Beer in New Jersey. We had to lead off with this story: Maryanne and Paul are the authors of Michigan Breweries and they both grew up in the Garden State.
After a six-year run, Jeff at Stonch’s Beer Blog has called time on his blogging. That’s the bad news. The good news is that The Gunmakers, the Clerkenwell (London EC1) pub he fell in love with and eventually bought, is very much alive and well.
Mikkeller, which The Danish Beer Enthusiasts elected that country’s best brewery in 2008, likes to “seek and explore new limits.” Not satisfied with brewing Denmark’s most potent beer, the brewery is in the process of brewing a beer with the theoretical IBU at 1,000. We can’t wait to read the reviews of this one.
Finally, CNNGo.com reports on an emerging beer culture in Shanghai. Several intrepid craft brewers are already doing business, and last month the Brewers Association sent over a delegation to spread the word about American craft beer.